Who Is It For?

Genres Flashcards Preview

Ballad

• Series of verses tell story, often historical or personal• Sung in strophic musical form• Circulated on large sheets of paper called broadsides• Often broadsides added a catchy chorus, repeated between verses• British ballad tradition is one of the main roots of American music

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Old-time music

• Broadly refers to early American styles including string band music, ballad songs, sacred songs, and work songs

3

Gospel music

• Large body of sacred song with evangelical, religious texts• Influenced by popular songs, in use of repetition and memorable combinations of melody and text designed for mass consumption• Usually accompanied by musical instruments

4

Black spirituals

Habanera

• The first Latin-American style to have an international impact• A Cuban musical style introduced to Europe in the 1850s• Involves a characteristic syncopated rhythm, usually in the bass• Tango was influenced by the habanera rhythm

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Minstrel show

• First form of musical and theatrical entertainment to be regarded as distinctively American• Featured mainly white performers in blackface parodying African-American mannerisms• Typical 1840s minstrel song was sung by one member, accompanied by a fiddle, banjos, tambourine, and rib bones

7

Waltz

• Rose to popularity in the U.S. in the 1820s, initially regarded as scandalously intimate• By the end of the century, regarded as a symbol of sophistication• Smooth, graceful, triple-meter accompaniment

8

Brass band concerts

• From Civil War through 1910s, one of the most important musical aspects of American life• Brass band popularity spread rapidly during and after the Civil War (1861 on)• Many bands played arrangements of popular sheet music hits as well as patriotic music

9

Tin Pan Alley

• By the 1880s, a publishing firm boom erupted in New York City, centered around a block in lower Manhattan that became known as Tin Pan Alley (because of the cacophony)• Rise of the modern American music business, aimed at providing hits for an urban market• Shared mutually beneficial relationship with Broadway in the 20s and 30s (“golden age”)

10

Vaudeville

• Popular theatrical form descended from minstrelsy• Originated around the turn of the century• Most important medium for popularizing Tin Pan Alley songs• Consisted of a series of unrelated acts presented sequentually

11

Ragtime

• Emerged in the 1880s, peaking in popularity in the 1910s• In some regards a descendant of minstrelsy, with white musicians using simplified African American elements• Often involved Tin Pan Alley composers adding syncopated rhythms to spice up pop tunes

12

Plantation songs

• Descended from the minstrel tradition• Popular in the 19th century• Best-known composer is James A Bland• Accused of pandering to white stereotypes of blacks

13

Jazz Age

• Sparked by the recordings of the ODJB (Tiger Rag, etc)• Represented cultural shift, intensification of African American influence on musical taste• Created more opportunities for black musicians (including Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake)• Still an era of racial inequality (segregation, blackface in The Jazz Singer)

14

Tango

• Reached popularity in the 1910s, with the help of Vernon and Irene Castle• Changed the face of American popular dance• Represented departure from restrained movements, towards syncopated dance styles

15

Parlor song

• Reached peak of popularity in the 19th century• Most popular songs were by Paul Dresser and Harry von Tilzer• Success was driven by selling sheet music and cheap pianos to the middle class• Piano remained the center of domestic music-making until the radio in the 20s

16

Crooning

• Introduction of the microphone enabled shift from exaggerated vaudeville style to a more private musical experience• First emerged in the 1920s